Page 4 - IRANRptAug21

1.0 Executive summary
Iran’s economy grew by 3.6% in the 2020/2021 Persian calendar year (ended March 20), Akbar Komijani, lately appointed caretaker governor at the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), was cited as saying by Press TV.
If verified, it would mean Iran has emerged from the long and bitter three-year recession that set in around May 2018 when former US president Donald Trump hit Tehran with renewed and intensified heavy sanctions.
Komijani was also reported as stating that Iranian GDP expanded in the Persian year fourth quarter by 7.7%. That was said to have followed two successive quarters of growth beginning late July 2020. Officials have credited higher exports and a general realignment of the economy, necessitated by the impact of heavy US sanctions, with securing the new growth.
Trump’s sanctions drive against Iran kicked in halfway through 2018, a year that brought a GDP contraction of 6%, according to the World Bank. Things worsened in 2019 as the sanctions screw was tightened, with economic output falling 6.8%.
The Iranian currency has recovered since the Trump presidency but remains volatile. The Iranian rial (IRR) on May 5 reached its strongest rate against the dollar on the open market in three months, causing the central bank to deny it was boosting the currency and to say it was gaining on strengthening sentiment for a positive outcome from the ongoing Vienna talks aimed at reviving the 2015 nuclear deal. By the end of trading, the IRR reached 209,000 versus the USD.
Iran looks set to be engulfed by what would be its fifth coronavirus wave. Businesses such as cafes and restaurants as well as shopping centres including the Tehran Grand Bazaar have been ordered to pull the shutters down for at least two weeks as the numbers of coronavirus infections continues to jump following the discovery of the Delta variant originally discovered in India.
The massive upswing in infections is partly due to the poor rollout of vaccines in the country and large increase in black market sales forcing many to have to go without any protection from the virus.
Meanwhile, the southwestern province has been the scene of nearly two weeks of street protests over water shortages amid the most prolonged drought it has suffered in more than 50 years. Several people have been killed in the unrest. Sadeq Ziaeian, director of Iran's National Drought Warning and Monitoring Center, told Iranian media that the rainfall had dropped by nearly 50% in South Khorasan province this year compared to the long-term average and by as much as 80% in southeastern Sistan and Baluchistan province.
Drought-related water deficits have also led to rolling power cuts in localities supplied by hydroelectric plants. They supply around 15% of Iran's power supply, according to energy ministry data.
4 IRAN Country Report August 2021 www.intellinews.com